To make e-mails originating from income tax department convincing and authentic and remove the suspicion of phishing among tax payers, the Modi government has asked officials of the department to necessarily put their e-mail id and official phone numbers in such communication.
The directive was issued to income tax officials by revenue secretary, Hasmukh Adhia, said PTI, claiming to have accessed the order.
"Henceforth any notice, letter, communication issued by any officer under Department of Revenue, including Central Board of Direct Taxes, its directorates and field formations to the taxpayers, members of public should invariably contain mention of email address and office phone numbers, of the officers signing such, communications, notice, letters for facilitating tax payers' electronic interface with the department," the order said.
"All are requested to kindly ensure that the above directions are strictly followed," it added.
"In case of doubt, the recipient or taxpayer could check the authenticity of the notice or letter sent by the Assessing Officer or the IT officer. The attempt is to make e-communication by IT department safe, secure and reliable," a senior finance ministry official said.
The move follows a recent pilot project, the first of its nature, to commence an e-mail based assessment of 100 tax payers each in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Chennai regions. The order to mention e-mail ids and phone numbers is to lend credibility to the communication.
It is aimed at reducing the physical visits to the income tax department, reported PTI.
